Any of the less than five star reviews can be ignored. Both of these games are awesome. I lost weeks of my life as a kid playing the first one, and I'm currently deep into RB3D. Get the Hell's Angels Super Patch (HASP) and the On The Edge scenery upgrades for RB3D and it becomes an amazing, timeless game. Make sure to get a gunsight generator, as well. All of these mods can be found for free on several sites, but get them quick as many of those sites probably won't be around for much longer.
The lack of sights on most planes is the ONLY drawback. Yes, the controls can be jittery, there is engine torque and lack of trim that make the planes a handful to fly. That is how they were back in WW1. No radar, no radios, and no parachutes. It's amazing the planes could take off hauling the size of balls the pilots had.... Play some fly now or single missions for training, then immerse yourself in an awesome campaign. I'm running Win 8.1 on a regular laptop with a cheapo logitech extreme 3d pro joystick and it all works perfectly.